Goodbye Staten Island, hello New Milford

Published 6:04 pm, Saturday, January 19, 2013

Hurricane Sandy evacuee Kelly Ackermann, of Staten Island, N.Y., finishes washing dishes in the sink of a mobile home that was provided to her family by Faith Church in New Milford. Photographed on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. Kelly and her husband, Scott, moved in last Friday. This is the Ackermann's fourth move since the hurricane hit. They both are currently looking for work locally so they can stay. less

Hurricane Sandy evacuee Kelly Ackermann, of Staten Island, N.Y., finishes washing dishes in the sink of a mobile home that was provided to her family by Faith Church in New Milford. Photographed on Wednesday, ... more

Hurricane Sandy evacuee Kelly Ackermann, of Staten Island, N.Y., stands outside the mobile home that was provided to her family by Faith Church in New Milford. Photographed on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. Kelly and her husband, Scott, moved in last Friday. This is the Ackermann's fourth move since the hurricane hit. They both are currently looking for work locally so they can stay.

Hurricane Sandy evacuee Kelly Ackermann, of Staten Island, N.Y., stands outside the mobile home that was provided to her family by Faith Church in New Milford. Photographed on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. Kelly

Staten Island evacuee Maryann Daino kisses her cat, Edie, inside a mobile home trailer that was provided by Faith Church in New Milford. Photographed on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. Daino moved in the day before. The mobile home next to the church parking lot is Daino's fourth temporary housing unit since Hurricane Sandy made her Staten Island home uninhabitable. After she said she saw a 60-foot wave her "whole neighborhood was like a river." less

Staten Island evacuee Maryann Daino kisses her cat, Edie, inside a mobile home trailer that was provided by Faith Church in New Milford. Photographed on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013. Daino moved in the day before. ... more

NEW MILFORD -- Scott and Kelly Ackermann have been in town less than a week.

But they've decided they're staying.

"It's wonderful here,'' Scott said Tuesday. "It's very, very beautiful. The people are great. The air is clean.''

The Ackermanns are Staten Islanders. In October, Superstorm Sandy took everything they had. Scott had to swim to safety to escape.

"Our house was red-tagged,'' Kelly said. In other words, condemned.

But now, they're settling into a little community of New Yorkers --from Staten Island, Breezy Point in Queens -- in 15 mobile homes in a lot next to Faith Church on Route 7.

"It's a shock,'' Scott said. "We know the people in Unit P.''

Like the others in the mobile homes, they're learning the lay of the new land they live in -- where the town centers are, where the restaurants are, where the schools are.

The Ackermanns now have a donated car. What they need right now are jobs.

"I do construction,'' Scott said. "I'll do something local. If I can't find anything, I'll drive down to White Plains. I'll work at Home Depot. I'll do anything.''

Guillermo Hernandez is in the same place in every way. He and his family lost everything to Sandy. He kept his 5-year-old daughter Vanessa safe by standing in Sandy's waters for 13 hours, holding her in place above the flood.

He now has one of the mobile homes to stay in. He and his family -- Vanessa, Guillermo's wife Luz, his 13-year-old son Santiago -- have a roof over their heads. His children are in the Faith Church school. He has a donated car.

He now needs a job.

"I'm a handyman,'' he said. "And I managed parking garages. There aren't many of those here.''

The community is the work of the church and the Stephen Siller Tunnel To Towers Foundation.

John Hodge -- New Fairfield's first selectman, a church member and coordinator of the foundation -- said that of the 15 units, 12 are now occupied. Two will be filled within the week and the last one is all but set, he said.

Hodge said there is room to add five more units, if everyone agrees.

"I've had thousands of applications,'' he said.

People, and institutions have been remarkably generous in helping the community get established. Hodge said, for example, that Ikea and Sleepy's have donated furniture for the units. Functioning TVs sent to the electronic recycling scrap heap were rescued and reused.

When the need for sofas came up, Ridgefield Responds -- which was created in 2005 to help victims of Hurricane Katrina -- came through

Ridgefield Selectman Di Masters said the town had collected money to help the town of Pas Christian, Miss. The town leaders there freed up the fund to Sandy victims, and it sent $4,788 to buy the couches.

"We were able to do it right then and there,'' Masters said. "I was able to tell Pas Christian, `with your generosity, we have a perfect fit.' "

What is needed now, Hodge said, are cash donations and food. If the community can feed the Sandy refugees, Hodge said, they can use their salaries to help themselves recover.

They need three more donated cars. And they need jobs. Anyone who can help with these things is asked to call Hodge at 203-312-5600.

With them. Hodge said, the transplanted New Yorkers can get re-established and the church and Tunnel To Towers can meet its goal of disassembling the community by year's end.

"Anyone who moves here has to complete a plan by July 2013 that outlines their exit strategy,'' Hodge said.

Mary Ann Daino isn't quite there yet -- she'd just moved into the community Tuesday morning with her five cats.

Daino, 61, blessed her cats and walked out into the flood of Sandy. The waters swept her away and she survived by grabbing onto a tree. "I was about to grab onto another branch when I heard a voice shouting 'Don't move,' " Daino said. "I thought it was the voice of God.''

It turned out to be a neighbor, warning her away from a live utility wire -- if she had grabbed it, she might have been electrocuted. The neighbor then threw her a lifeline in the form of an extension cord, and pulled her to safety.

When she was able to get back to her home, all her cats were alive.

"They were sitting on the bed,'' Daino said. "The bed must have rose and fell with the water.''

Tuesday, Daino was getting organized, setting up her home, creating an office out of a bedroom. She's a seamstress. She wants to take classes to get more proficiency on a computer.'

She doesn't think she will move back to Staten Island. Will she stay in New Milford? "Ask me in three months,'' she said. "Right now, I'm in heaven.''